Sport Sedan Shootout

 

1. Introduction
2. BMW 135i Coupe
3. Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution TC-SST
4. Subaru Impreza WRX STi spec R
5. Volkswagen Golf R32 4MOTION
6. She Says
7. Conclusion
8. Specifications

 

2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STi spec R

CarAdvice Rating: (4.00/5.00)

The Subaru WRX STi Spec R, with a name like that they don’t come much more iconic, yet the glow has dimmed a little in recent times and the latest iteration of the ‘Suby’ has come in for a far amount of criticism.

So what’s gone wrong, well for a start until right about now the ‘Rex” as it is affectionately know has only been available as a five-door hatch and that’s a big change for this car, which has always been a very popular sedan and had limited popularity as a hatch. The STi we should point out is still only available as a five-door hatchback.

There are reasons for this, of course, the US only buys sedans so all the initial production went there plus Subaru rightly divined that the hatch made a much better rally car so it wanted to concentrate on that version for its WRC campaign.

But none of this explains the general criticisms, the car is too plastic on the inside and too mainstream on the outside, and lacks some of the distinctive boxer-engine get-up-and-go.

Much of this of course is all part of Subaru’s plans to move the Impreza and its sporting sibling the WRX further into the mainstream market, for the very good reason of wanting to sell more cars.

Trouble is, with a car like the WRX that means softening it off, making it more acceptably comfortable and generally removing the hard edge that enthusiasts so loved.

So the STI carried the hopes of putting some of that old magic back into the WRX icon, and to a point it has, but on other scores it too has gone mainstream.

While the WRX looks were amorphous and apologetic, the STI looks chiselled and confident, it has pumped guards, purposeful looking vents in the front splitter -although on the road car they are essentially fake – and at the back four neat exhaust pipes poking out through a purposeful looking diffuser.

Under the bonnet things have also changed the 2.5-litre, turbocharged engine offers up a potent 221kW at 6000rpm and substantial torque of 407Nm at a reasonably tractable 4000rpm.

Just what you do with this extra performance and how you use it is down to a small round metal dial labelled “SI-DRIVE” just behind the six-speed gearshift.

You have three engine map settings to play with, Intelligent (I) for smooth and economical driving, Sport (S) for all round performance and Sport Sharp (S#) which the Subaru press kit says offers; “Truly dynamic engine performance”.

It’s all a very mundane way of saying you can sharpen the throttle response to racetrack precision should you want, and we can attest that it certainly makes a difference to how the car responds.

Thing is it’s very much a ‘wring the neck’ sort of performance, around town the STi almost feels sluggish and it’s only when you really put the boot into it that you really appreciate the performance that is on hand, which means that most of the time it all feels a bit muted.

Behind the “SI-DRIVE”, there’s another very interesting bit of technology, which is labelled “C-DIFF”. Subaru’s acronym for this is the DCCD (Driver’s Control Centre Differential). By moving the lever up or down, you can control the torque distribution between front and rear axles.

This means the drivetrain, too, is seriously trick, as the STi does not have the WRX’s viscous coupling in the centre differential. Instead it has a far faster-acting planetary differential with an electro-magnetically controlled clutch pack. What’s more, you can select the torque split manually, or leave it in auto and let an ECU do all the juggling based on inputs from yaw, pitch, steering angle and throttle position sensors.

If you were using the car on a track or trying your hand at some rally driving then there would be value in spending time learning to use this, for most people, and we did the same, the best bet is to just leave it in Auto and let the computer do the work.

As well there’s a six-speed gearbox, in place of the WRX’s five-speed unit, it works well and the ratio seem well-matched to the performance.

Suspension is basically the same as the WRX, but with uprated bushes and retuned dampers; the standard wheels are 17-inches in diameter, however on our Spec R car they are 18-inch BBS, but they’re an inch wider and shod with 235/Dunlop SP Sport.

The steering is still a speed-sensitive system but the STi has what Subaru calls a ‘fast rack’ and it certainly seems to feed the steering inputs in more quickly when you really start to hustle the car along.

The steering still isn’t big on communication, but does feel more direct and slightly weightier, which inspires more confidence when you’re attacking an unfamiliar road.

The ride has certainly lost most of its soft edges, so you feel the bigger tyres thumping over sharp undulations and breaks in the road surface, but the upside is a tauter ride, sharper turn-in, less pitch and roll, and reduced understeer.

If you are on the throttle, and coming into a corner, there’s some slight body roll. Keep yur nerve, turn in hard like you’re committed and the STi will hold the line perfectly and sort it all out for you.

Trouble is, like a lot about the STi it is only really effective when the car is being driven at 10-tenths and the trouble with that is that you cannot drive that way anywhere but on a racetrack.

Then you come to the interior and while there’s generous accommodation for four, and five at a pinch, with easy access through four doors it’s nothing special.

The rear seats are a bit flat and hard, the front seats were very nice leather and Alcantara faux race-seats produced by Recaro, the first such seats to incorporate side airbags, and they provided a good level of grip, although under extremes we found ourselves sliding around a bit too much in them.

The dash and centre console of the STI certainly looks better than the somewhat ‘low-rent’ affair in the standard WRX, having a nice touch-screen sat/nav unit and stereo head-unit, plus all the extra switches that go with the Si-Drive and the C-Diff to give it a more purposeful appearance, but there’s no getting away from the plastic look of most of it, not what you expect in a $60,000+ car!

In every race there are winners and losers and to fail in a four-horse race of champions is more about not producing the ‘little bit extra’ rather than being deficient in anything that really matters. We know full well that the Subaru WRX STi has its devotees, just as do the other competitors, but to us the ‘Suby’ just failed to chin the bar on the last attempt. That’s the way it is in this sort of company.

CarAdvice Overall Rating:

How does it Drive:
How does it Look:
How does it Go:

 

1. Introduction
2. BMW 135i Coupe
3. Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution TC-SST
4. Subaru Impreza WRX STi spec R
5. Volkswagen Golf R32 4MOTION
6. She Says
7. Conclusion
8. Specifications

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